Responsible Parenting
by LunaRowena
Summary: The care and keeping of your fourteen year old Twi'lek.


The Gizkas had gotten into the ventilation system. And from there a whole lot of other places. Based on the chewed remains in the storage room, they probably started from there and worked their way in. Carth sighed. It was a good thing Elizabeth was busy on Manaan, because it didn't look like they were going anywhere any time soon. While she, Jolee, and Bastilla were out… saving Jolee's friend from murder charges? it was up to the rest of them to repair the situation. He had sent Canderous, HK, and Juhani out for fresh supplies, Zaalbar and T3 to repair the electrical damage, Mission into the ventilation system to clear out the Gizkas, and he was welding the damage in the supply room.

"Carth?" Mission's voice came from in the wall. "Can I take a break?"

"Did you find all the Gizkas?"

"I found a lot of them. I don't know how many there are. It's not like I counted and named them." No, that had been Elizabeth, strangely enough. She seemed to find them adorable instead of a nuisance.

"Did you get them out of the vents?"

"I kicked out, like, twelve."

"I'm pretty sure there were more than twelve, Mission."

"It's dusty in here." She was getting whiny. "I'm thirsty."

She had been in there for a while, and it wasn't like she was slave labor. He pulled off the welding mask. "Okay, Mission, I'm going to remove the wall panel here," he tapped on the wall. He pulled the wall panel off, kicking a Gizka out from under him as he did so, and the blue Twi'lek tumbled smoothly out of the wall. He quickly replaced it before the Gizkas got any more ideas about new places to explore.

She brushed herself off. "Whew, thanks, Carth. It feels good to stand up."

"Here," he grabbed some water and a nutrition bar out of a supply crate and handed them to her.

She looked at the nutrition bar sadly. "Can I have chips instead?"

"Chips don't have nutritional value."

"Can I have chips and the nutrition bar?"

"You'll ruin your dinner."

"You're no fun." She sat down on top of one of the supply crates and took a swig of water.

"Did you get any update from Zaalbar and T3?"

"Yeah, Big-Z said that T3 said that they almost have the scanners back online, and then we can find the Gizkas in the walls without me crawling around blind."

"That's good to hear. If that's true, it doesn't make sense to send you back in until they finish that." He pulled the welding mask back over his face and returned to fixing the grating while she munched on her nutrition bar.

He could here her swinging her legs, thumping them against the side of the storage crate. "So how's it going on your end?"

"Pretty well when the Gizkas stay out of the way."

There was a pause with just the sound of her legs thumping against the crate, the welding torch whirring, and the Gizkas chattering. "Need any help?"

"Do you know how to use a welding torch?"

"No, but–"

"Then thanks, Mission, but I'm good."

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"You can do whatever you want for a while, Mission. You don't have to hang out here."

"There's no one else to hang out with. T3 already told me to go away."

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Look, Mission, can you please stop kicking the box?"

"Why do you have to shoot down everything I want to do, Carth?" Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump.

He turned off the torch and turned back around, raising the welding mask. "I'm not trying to shoot down everything you do, Mission, but you're being annoying right now."

"Yeah you do." She continued to kick the storage crate vigorously. "'Why didn't find all the Gizkas, Mission?' 'Don't kick the box, Mission.' 'Eat this, not that, Mission.' 'Don't swear, Mission.' 'Go away, Mission.'"

She wasn't wrong about the swearing. "I didn't tell you to go away."

"Yeah, you just did. You never want to spend time with me."

"Mission, that's not – look, I'd be more enthused about you hanging out here if you didn't argue with everything I told you."

"Maybe I wouldn't argue with you if you weren't so bossy." her voice raised. "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my real dad!"

"Yeah, well," Carth waved his free hand, his voice also raising, "I am a dad and I can't just turn it off."

"What?!" Mission jumped to her feet. "Then why don't you go be a dad to your real kid who wants a dad and leave me alone?! What's wrong with you, just leaving your kid when you could be there?"

"He's dead." There was a silence and Carth fiddled with the ventilation.

"Oh." Mission sat back down on top of the storage crate cross-legged. "I'm sorry for yelling, Carth," she said in a small voice. "I didn't know."

"You're fine, Mission," he said. "It's not something I talk about a lot." He paused, wondering how much he should share. "His name was Dustil. He would have been just a bit older than you. I miss him a lot."

She fiddled with a thread coming loose from the stitching of her boot while he worked. "My dad's dead."

"I figured."

"At least that's what Griff said. And Griff lies a lot but I don't know why he'd lie about that. I don't think he would have brought me with him if he didn't have to. Since he didn't this last time."

"That's… a remarkably mature perspective, Mission."

"Yeah, thanks." She continued to fiddle with her boot. "I've been talking with Elizabeth about it. I mean, Griff's my brother and all and I still love him and all that, but that doesn't mean I have to think he's perfect, you know? To not know when he's messed up and I need to set boundaries. That he needs to want to change and want me back in his life."

She'd definitely been talking to Elizabeth because Carth highly doubted the phrase "need to set boundaries" came from Mission. "I know it's hard, Mission, but it's a good thing to know."

"Yeah, it's hard, because, like, I don't even remember my parents, you know? So I want to miss them, but it's missing 'parents' not 'them.' Griff's the only person I think of when I think 'dad.' And Griff was kind of a shitty dad."

He resisted the urge to scold her language. "I can't imagine Griff telling you to eat your vegetables."

She snorted. "No, me either. Not that we had vegetables in the Lower City on Taris. Energy pudding for days. He did teach me to slice systems and open locks, though."

Which had come in handy on their weird missions more times than he could count, so despite the underhanded nature he couldn't really complain. "Dustil and I were fixing up this old speeder bike. Well, I was trying to fix up the speeder bike and he was 'helping' as I tried to teach him how to use the tools. He was finally getting the hang of it."

"That sounds nice," she said quietly.

"Mission?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to learn how to use a welding torch?"

"Yeah."

"Here. Come here and put this on." He pulled off the welding mask and handed it to her when she walked over. "Then take this, don't point it that way, like that..."


End file.
